JULY 22 is a pernicious day marked red in calendar by innocent blood. The debacle brought forth by Anders Behring Breivik transpires the grave reality that terror threat is not confined to just the radical bureau of one religion.

Rather extremist roots are taking strength in nearly all religions. As to why their gradual evolution was overlooked in the past might derive various opinions but the absolute urgency is clear: this has to end by all means.

While it is an indubitable fact that seditious organisations composed of Muslim fanatics have brought havoc with their acts of terror but to discount the ringing acts by extremist cults pertaining to other religions will be a grave indiscretion.

Confessions by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (an Indian right-wing nationalist group) for carrying out the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing that killed 68 Pakistanis underlines this same morose reality. Apart from this, RSS also professed involvement in Malegaon bombings 2006-08, Ajmer Sharif, Modasa and Makkah Masjid attacks.

Terror ventures in Nanded, Parvani, Jalna, Mhow in Indore, Nimach, and Bhopal are also attributed to this same right-wing group.

Now whether we talk about such Hindu extremist groups or the likes of Nazis in Europe, the question is: did they come to being just overnight? No. The vitriol brewed by such right-wing groups did give out its pungent smoke before as well.

Last year’s case of a Swedish man arrested for over a dozen unsolved shootings of immigrants in Malmo is one such example here. The steady escalation of right-wingers and the threat they pose was brought on discussion tables many times. But every time files were closed owing to the fact that they were marked as relatively harmless.

In the past decade, world spotlights were intensely focused on Islamist terrorism exclusively, hence the peril posed by domestic radicals thrived behind shades. The outcome of which we see unfolding now.

It is no time to point fingers at each other. Extremism like a plague has proliferated beyond our anticipation. Shying away from acknowledging the termite that is now eating into the moral fabric of more than just one particular religion or society is parallel to behaving like an adamant patient who believes all is well.

Any type of misogynist ideology — may it be the mantra of the ignorant lot in Islam, Christianity or Hinduism — has to be looked upon as a first-degree felony. Further hesitation in prioritisation or slack comparisons will only end up making the notion of world peace a mere quixotic fantasy of wishful philosophers.

HABIBA YOUNIS Rawalpindi

Evil designs

THIS is with reference to a recent incident in the Chinese province of Xinjiang where Chinese security forces killed separatists and extremists who are believed to be trained in Waziristan by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

This shows how the TTP is planning to isolate Pakistan from the world community. Pakistan is already isolated with most of the world and even these extremists did not spare Pakistan’s all-weather friend China where they are creating trouble to destroy the peace in their province of Xinjiang. Pakistan should take strong notice of TTP activities in China and Pakistan in order to restore the trust of Pakistan’s best friend.

AMIN SHEERAZI Abbottabad